A typical vehicle seat is not particularly welladapted for older infants or young children. For infants or children, it is desirable to use a car seat, including a seat portion and/or a back rest as well as some type of restraining mechanism.
The operation of the restraining mechanism is of particular importance to designers in the field of child's car seats since children restrained in child's car seats may attempt to defeat the purpose of the restraining mechanism by moving the car seat or attempting escape therefrom. In one type of arrangement, straps are connected to the car seat itself for securing the infant or child about an upper portion of the body. For example, Martel et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,613 discloses an infant-restraining shoulder harness including two straps connected to the child's car seat. Each of the straps has first and second ends. The first ends of the straps are received by slots in the back rest of the child's car seat and are connected to a transverse bight disposed behind the back rest. The second ends of the harness extend through a well in the seat portion and are secured therebeneath.
To secure the child's car seat, and secondarily the child, Kain U.S. Pat. No. 4,568,122 provides a child's car seat including a base and seat, a split shield openable for access, with the shield being closed when the child is in place. The shield has half-channels accepting a seat belt of the standard vehicle such that the vehicle seat belt can be strapped over the shield. Consequently, the Kain car seat employs a vehicle lap seat belt to maintain the split shield in a closed position as well as to secure the child's car seat base against a bottom section of a vehicle seat. Securing a child's car seat along an upper surface of the shield is advantageous in that it prevents the child from tampering with the barrier, but such securement is disadvantageous in that the child can conceivably tip the car seat over during use thereof.
Kain U.S. Pat. No. 4,754,999 provides at least two embodiments of a car seat employing a restraining mechanism. In the first embodiment, illustrated by FIG. 1, the child is restrained by a split barrier and a pair of shoulder harnesses. Each harness has an end connected behind a back rest of the chair and another end connected to an underside of a shield half. The harnesses are held in a relatively close position by a web slider which appears to be simply draped over an upper body portion of the child when he is secured within the car seat.
In another embodiment, illustrated by FIG. 13, a shoulder harness cooperates with a vehicle lap belt to secure the barrier as well as an upper torso portion of the child. That is, the lap belt is communicated through the barrier and a male end associated therewith is detachably connected to the female end of a vehicle shoulder harness. It should be noted that the shoulder harness female end is connected to the vehicle lap belt rather than the child's car seat, so that the vehicle lap belt is not available for securing the child's car seat to a bottom section of the vehicle seat.
Hyde, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,556 provides an infant car seat which may be oriented in a sitting or reclining position. The car seat frame is adaptable for securement along a bottom section of the car seat using a vehicle lap seat belt. A barrier associated with the seat is secured to a seat portion by a secondary belt. The secondary belt, which appears to have two ends connected to the frame as well as conventional male and female connecting ends, is disposed in contact with the barrier.